Religion & Law

Here is the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban as violating the Iowa Constitution.  The Court used an equal protection analysis, applying intermediate scrutiny.  Here's a key step in the Court's analysis:

Therefore, with respect to the subject and purposes of Iowa?s marriage laws, we find that the plaintiffs are similarly situated compared to heterosexual persons. Plaintiffs are in committed and loving relationships, many raising families, just like heterosexual couples. Moreover, official recognition of their status provides an institutional basis for defining their fundamental relational rights and responsibilities, just as it does for heterosexual couples. Society benefits, for example, from providing same-sex couples a stable framework within which to raise their children and the power to make health care and end-of-life decisions for loved ones, just as it does when that framework is provided for opposite-sex couples.

At the end of the opinion, the Court also addresses "the reason for the exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from civil marriage left unspoken by the County: religious opposition to same-sex marriage."